Premiere Pro Re-linked Wrong Files : All my work RUINED!

Question

I moved my files to a different folder, and therefore was expecting the need to re-link the files, what I do not understand is,

Why Premiere Pro re-linked files from a totally different folder (which was not selected) with similar file names.
After NOT clicking save and restarting Premiere Pro, my entire timeline is linked to the wrong video files!!!

This is not the first time I have had to mess about with the non-user friendly re-linking process, but why is it such as pain

[Profanity removed by moderator].

curious_navigatordb3a · Accepted Answer

Ugh, this exact thing bit me a while back. What happens is when you relink the first file and leave 'Relink others automatically' checked, Premiere stops caring about the folder you picked and starts matching everything by file name. So if you've got the same file names sitting in two different folders, it grabs the wrong ones without asking.

On the second question — even though you never hit save, the relink gets baked into the project the moment that dialog closes. Closing without saving after that doesn't roll it back, which is brutal.

What worked for me: open the last auto-save from before the relink, then redo it with 'Relink others automatically' unchecked and do the folders one at a time. Slower, but Premiere stops guessing across folders. I also turn on the File Path column in the Project panel now so I can eyeball where things are actually pointing before I close anything.

Averdahl · Answer

I have had this happening to me when i used a AVCHD camera that always use the same file names, such as 00000.MTS, 00001.MTS, etc, etc. When it happened i unlinked the whole project, either manually or by renaming the source folder so Premiere needs/must re-link everything again.

Then, relink everything but pay much attention to which folder Premiere actually looks in. If not=problems. @Peru Bob has a very good solution here as well, iow use a backup or an autosave. But again, pay attention and not click, click, click to get it done as fast as possible.

It is possible to link the correct files, but it is required to be careful and not just click ok all the time and hope for the best.

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